flashback to home screen - xbmcbuntu

My first posting on this forum, but I've been using XBMC for a few years. Honestly, up until now, I've been able to figure out all my numerous issues. However, I seem to have come up against a wall...

I recently went from V10 to the pre Frodo (12) in the hopes of getting Hi-10p to work for my large anime collection. That ended in utter failure and I gave up, I don't really remember what the issues were.

Then I tried to install Eden (v11) on my system, and the primary install didn't work, I'd just get a black screen after the grub loader (I should mention I also install the live version or as it is now called XBMCbuntu because I don't have a windows key and this is the most convenient for me). So I had to go in search of some version called, I think, x-swat. Even that install didn't work correctly (the scren size was so small i couldn' read it).

I was able to get it up and running and then my videos/movies started to crash. For example, I would click a file, the audio and timer would start the video would not and a few seconds later the system would freeze, requiring a hard restart. This would happen on any file, at anytime. If the file started playing though, I had no issues. I googled around and saw one thread that said Nvidia drivers might be the cause and to turn off UPNP, so I did and that seemed to fix it. I was happy. Following that I installed some add-ons, pandora, amazon prime, the statistics one, etc. Everything worked then too. I have since turned it off, and restarted it to find that nothing will play now, again. I have no sound at all (so moving through the menu has no sound). When I click on any file or extension (I have since disabled them all) the screen goes dark for half a second, like it normally would when loading, there is a small black x in the middle of the screen and i am returned to the home menu screen. Any thoughts?